Gas-generating apparatus.



1. w. Mc FARLAND. GAS GENERATING APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED OCT. I6.1915- 1,257,374. Patented Feb. 26, 1918.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

' INVENTOR J. W. MCFA'RLAND.

GAS GENERATING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 16. ISIS.

Patented Feb. 26, 1918.

- 2 suns-swan 2 IIIII JIIIII I ATTORNEY z JFAMES Wl. MOFABLAND, 0F;BROWNWOOD, TEXAS.

. GAS GENERATIN G .APPARATUS.

. Specification of-.I.etters.Pa tent. .Patented F.eb ;26 1918,

-Application filed October 16,4915.-' Seria1 No :56;166.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J earns W. MGFARLAND,

citizen of the United States residing at -Brownwood, in the-countyofrBrown. and

State of Texas;have invented CGItZtlH-IIBW and useful Improvements inGas-Generating Apparatus, of which the following is a speciiication.

This invent-ionpertains tonewand useful in'iprovemcnts in gas generatingapparatus.

Itist-he-object of "my'invention to generate gas-under conditions whichwill--prac tically eliminate-"soot and to-providemeans for so doing.However one of the vital features of the invention is to provide meansfor taking care ofthe expanslon of the gas and air so that thetankneednotbe elevated more than a couple offeet :and whereby a steadyflame-is-had and a unifornr heatsustained for a long-period. .'A furtherobject is to eliminate the usual fine- 'a-djustments of the oil feedandby provision of the expansion feature or what I- term-an air cushionto take care of a varying oil feed with equally good results.

lVith the above and other objects in VlBW the invention has relation tocertain novel features of construction and operation, an example ofwhich is described in the following specification and illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of an apparatus embodying my invention, and

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same.

In the drawings the numeral 1 designates the feed pipe of a generatingapparatus. At the outer end of the pipe 1 a controlling valve 2 isconnected and a supply pipe 3 extends from the valve to an oil storageor supply tank 4 which when used with this invention needs only to beelevated sufliciently to get a proper feed. It has been found that abouttwo feet above the valve is the proper height for the tank.

The feed pipe 1 is connected at its inner end to a cross pipe 5 at rightangles thereto and the pipe 5 is connected with a return pipe 6 parallelwith the pipe 1. The pipe 6 has connection with a central pipe 7disposed between and parallel with the pipes l and 6. The pipe 7 extendstoward but terminates short of the cross pipe. The pipes 1, 5, 6 and 7are all disposed in the same horizontal plane and constitute agenerating element which I have designated by the letter A, and whichhas the general form 1. of a coil. I-lowever Iprefer to havethis-element elongated sufiiciently to have .its ends farenoiighfromzthe flame to-maintaim them 'at a: slightly lower temperature *a nd'thus a retard-to a certain extent the flow. of thevgas.

: The pipes ust described may 'be' filled" with *small wiresas-indicated and as 1s-common 111 5118 art.

pipe 8 depends from the inner--end of the pipe 7 or -generatingele1uentand-is connected at itslower-"end to a lIOllZOlliZ'cIl pipe orOOII'lbLlSUOH GlQHIGHt'9*Wl110l1 "underlies the pipe 7. -Just hereI=w1sh t0'QlllPllil'SlZGifilld importance of the distance at which thepipe 9 is located from'thegenerating element. I

have found that inall the kerosene burners I have inspected the burneror-combustion pipe-is placed too close to the-generating elen1ent-and agreat amount of-so'ot ishad as well as other-bad effects. By experimentI learned that -the;.gas-must be "liberated at a point far enough from"the generating" ele- --ment to permitv a-propermixture with the air atatmospheric pressure to afford a .com-

'plete combustion before the' generating ele ment is reached by theflame. In all the burners I inspected the gas was liberated at a pointnot over three inches below the generator or generating element and Ifound that this i too close. Experiments were made until a perfectcombustion was obtained at seven inches. Where soot was present at lessthan seven inches, it was elimi nated at that distance and an efficientclear blue flame was attained.

Another point I found by experiment was that the burner gave betterresults with the generating element A placed directly against the bottomof the vessel to be heated and in Fig. l the said element is showndisposed against the bottom of a boiler 16 which is inclosed by thejacket 17. After operating this burner for several hours an inspectionshowed no soot on the boiler. Under the pipe 9 a heating pan 11 isdisposed into which the oil is run from the usual port in pipe 9 tostart the burner in the usual manner. The end of the pipe 9 is closed bya cap 10.

In operating kerosene oil burners more or less trouble has beenexperienced due to the rapid expansion of the air and gas, which causesthe oil to stop feeding and often results in explosions. Further themaintaining of a regular flame has been difficult and considerableadjusting of the controlling or feed valve has been necessary. I havediscovered that by connecting a dead air column or air cushionpreferably at one end of the generating element, that the ex pansion istaken care of and a regular flame is had. Further where it was necessaryto elevate the supply tank eight or more feet I operate my burner withthe tank elevated only about two feet. The gas expands against the airin the dead air column and does not back up into the feed pipe or tank;further it seems to form a governor or regulator and takes care of unduepressure.

In carrying out this feature a T-joint 12 is connected in the pipe 5 asshown and a short pipe 13 is directed outwardly therefrom. The pipe 13has its outer end connected with a vertical pipe member 14 which I haveshown jointed for convenience. While this pipe may be of differentlengths and may assume other shapes it must be airtight and I have shownits end sealed by a cap 15. It has been found that if a small leakoccurs in the pipe or in any of its connections failure will result andthe pipe will accumulate oil, while the burner will cease to burn. Thedead air in this pipe forms a cushion against which the gas expands sothere is no backing up in the pipes 1 and 3. It is important that .aportion of'this air pipe be sufliciently remote from the burner toremain at a considerably lower temperature otherwise the cushion islost. It is quite obvious that the gas expanding into the air pipe oragainst the air column formed by said pipe, will more or less compressthe air and in this way establish the cushion which will be flexibleenough to act as a pressure regulator for the gas.

This invention is presented as including all such modifications andchanges as properly come within the scope of the appended claims.

hat I claim, is:

1. The combination in a kerosene oil burner of a generating element, aburner member under the generating element, and means for providing adead air column having communication with the generating element inadvance of the burner member outlet.

2. The combination in a kerosene oil burner of a feed pipe, acontrolling valve at the outer end of the feed pipe, a generatingelement at the inner end of the feed pipe, a sealed dead air pipeconnected with the generating element, and a burner element disposedunder the generating element, said dead air pipe being disposed at apoint outside of the heating zone of the burner, whereby said pipe ismaintained in a relatively cool state.

JAMES W. MoFARLAND.

copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. (3.

